Has your starter exploded with activity and now looks dead? Go straight to the ‘Bacterial Fight Club’ bullet point in the comment below

I was inspired by the Dough Guy to make good pizzas in a conventional oven that comes out bubbly and crispy.

I’ve tried his conventional yeast recipes but the sourdough is way superior. Better flavor and fluffier crust. Other than the dough, I follow his guidance on making pizza.

Here’s my dough recipe (makes 2 14” pizzas)
Bread flour 450 g
Water 310 g
Active levain (100% hydration) 60 g
Salt 12 g
Olive oil 12 g
Total dough 844 g

Mix all ingredients until combined. 4 stretch and folds. Let bulk ferment but not as far as you would a bread. I did about 4 or 5 hours. Put olive oil in a container, divide doughs, do some shaping and pinch the bottoms, slap her in seam down. Let it sit for 2-5 days in the fridge.

The long ferment in the fridge is much more forgiving than the bread recipes - you’ll do great.

Now HERES THE SECRET:

Secret 1: let your dough sit for about 4 hours out of the fridge before using. This helps the dough relax and the dough will not tear or fight you when you stretch at room temp.

Secret 2: slap the dough on the counter with some flour and start making a circle with your fingers to expand the dough. Then wrap the dough around your fist and cross your hands over grabbing the dough with your fists until it gets the desired thinness.

Secret 3: Get yourself a pizza steel. This is what makes a crispy bottom.

Crank your oven as high as she’ll go and preheat for 45 mins to an hour. Mine goes to 550. Throw it in for 7 minutes - no more and no less.

(reuploading with an extra picture) After 4 failed attempts with a starter I made from scratch, I finally got some starter from a local sourdough bakery, fed it for a week, and that seems to have done the trick! I am so pleased. I just wanted to share.

Followed this recipe with 1 extra set of s&f, bulked for ~9 hours from mixing, added in some ice in my dutch oven, and did a 7 minute score https://grantbakes.com/good-sourdough-bread/#mv-creation-10-jtr

After months of feeding my starter and watching a million YouTube videos, I finally gathered up the courage to make my first sourdough bread! Not sure if I over-proofed it due to the larger air pockets but it tasted good overall and I’m pretty happy with it! Here is the recipe I followed via @runofthemillkitchen on YouTube, “easy sourdough bread recipe”

90g active starter
285g water
400g flour
10g salt

1. The night before, feed 5g of starter 45g of flour and 45g of water. If the starter looks too liquidy, add more flour until it has the consistency of pancake better.
2. The next morning, mix active starter with flour until milky.
3. Then add flour until a shaggy dough forms.
4. Let it rest 30 minutes then add 10g of salt and simple it in with wet hands.
5. Let it rest 45 minutes then do a set of stretch and folds.
6. Wait another 45 minutes and repeat. Wait another 45 minutes then do a set of coil folds. If the dough is now able to hold its form more, move on to the next step.
7. Using a digital thermometer, temp the dough. Refer to the chart in the video, as this will advise you approximately how many hours it should bulk ferment. Bulk fermentation began the minute you mixed your starter with your other ingredients so include this time.
8. After bulk fermenting, shape your dough on a floured surface then add it to a banneton.
9. Cold proof in the fridge overnight.
10. The next morning, preheat a Dutch oven or baking vessel in a 450d oven. Score your dough and add to your baking vessel into the oven with the lid on. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and bake another 20 minutes.
11. Let rest for 2-3 hours, then slice.

Just made my second loaf but in an oval shape! I think I like this shape more compared to a round loaf. I bulk fermented for around ~8 hours and cold proofed around 12 hours.

Super happy with it ☺️

Recipe from thesourdoughnerd
Sourdough Bread Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dough
500g unbleached bread flour
350g water (room temp.)
100g active sourdough starter
10g salt
For the Dough (in Cups)
4 cups unbleached bread flour
1½ cups water
1 cup active sourdough starter
1¾ teaspoons salt
Directions
Step 1: Mix the Dough
In a large mixing bowl, combine your starter, water, flour and salt. Mix until a shaggy dough forms. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 1 hour.
IMPORTANT: Bulk fermentation starts NOW— right after dough is mixed.
Step 2: Stretch & Folds
You will do 4 sets of stretch & folds — 30 minutes apart. Make sure to cover your dough in between each set of stretch & folds.
Step 3: Bulk Fermentation
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and let it bulk ferment at room temperature.
IMPORTANT: Bulk fermentation time will vary based on your environment/temperature.
Step 4: Shape the Dough
After bulk fermentation, lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out. Gently shape it into a round or oval loaf. Transfer to a banneton or pasta colander (seam side up). Cover tightly.
Step 5: Cold Proof
Put your dough in the refrigerator for 12–48 hours.
I let mine cold proof for 24 hours but you can bake when you're ready!
Step 6: Preheat the Oven & Dutch Oven
Preheat your oven to 450°F with your empty Dutch oven inside for about 45 minutes.
Step 7: Score & Bake
Remove your dough from the refrigerator and place on parchment paper. Score your dough. Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven, place your dough inside and put your lid on.
Step 8: Bake
Bake at **450°F for 30 minutes with your lid on.**Then, remove the lid and bake for an additional 12–15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
Step 9: Cool
Once baked, immediately remove the bread from your Dutch oven and place it somewhere to cool. Let it cool completely before slicing (at least 1 hour but if you can wait 2 hours — that's best!

NOT SELF PROMOTION JUST A GREAT COOKBOOK

I bought this book and have so enjoyed making many recipes in it!

Amy Duska is behind Little Spoon Farm and she’s all about bake smarter not harder.

In a nutshell, she recommends making one big batch of dough (3 different main types in the book) and put the whole bowl of dough in the fridge and you now have pre-fermented dough on hand for the week.

I’ve made two different types of dinner rolls and sweet rolls so far. I plan to make pigs in a blanket with the remainder of this week’s dough as well.

Highly recommend and just want to pass along this awesome baker and creator!

I have attempted sourdough foccacia probably 3-4 times before and always ended up with dense, flavorless bread. If anyone is having the same issue, I highly recommend trying this recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen!

I used 100g of peaked starter. The only modifications I made were doing two sets of stretch and folds with 30 min rest in between instead of just one set like her recipe states, and then I did a 12-hour cold proof right after step 3 because I wanted more of a sourdough flavor.

Definitely making this again soon, and plan to add some rosemary next time!

I took my starter right out the fridge and mixed up
150 g starter
350 warm water 105°
475 g bread flour
25 g rye flour
11 g pink Himalayan fine salt

4 stretch and folds and 10 hours a bulk ferment on my counter, kitchen is 75 degrees

Shaped and put in a lined basket with rice flour sprinkle and into the fridge for 3 hours. Preheated my enamel coated Dutch oven to 450° for approximately one hour. I baked covered for 25 minutes and uncovered for 15 and then had to open Bake to get some color on it for 10 removed at 206°. Letting it cool as I type

Hello, I just made my first sourdough buns in a while. I usually have no issues, but the crumb is confusing me a bit. Very large holes. Hoping for a bit of help figuring out what went wrong/ should be optimized.

Recipe: 400 g cold water 100 g sourdough (90% reg wheat + 10% rye) 500 g 90% tipo 00 + 10% rye 12 g salt

Process: Flour and water mixed. Autolyse for 60 min. Sourdough kneaded (just to mix) in, salt afterwards.

Hour one: Coil folds every twenty minutes. Afterwards coil folds once an hour. In total 3 hours on my counter in 24 ish degrees celcius.

I put it in the fridge when the dough has increased around 30% in size and had visible air bubbles on the surface (as according to the recipe I use)

Then in the fridge for 13 hours.

Tipped out the dough, cut it (gently) into pieces, put in a 240 c oven with steam for the first 5 mins and then no steam for 10 mins. Put them on a cooling rack for 20 mins before cutting into them.

What could be the issue?

(I live in northern Europe where it’s common to make rolls/buns for breakfast (hence the mini “bread”) )

I think I finally managed to do the shape in a way it gets some tension, in addition to a good score.
I know the crumb is not the best though, but I think it is pretty good. Wdyt?

Caputo Doppio Zero 340 g
Whole wheat flour 38 g
Initial water 250 g
Reserved water 20 g
Sourdough starter (1:1:1) 75 g
Salt 7.5 g
Olive oil 4 g

* Water, starter, flour – Mix into a shaggy dough and let rest for 30 minutes
* Dough temperature: 26.5°C
* Bulk fermentation starts at 1:00 PM
* Add salt and olive oil
* Dough temperature: 25.8°C
* Rest for 40 minutes
* Slap and fold until homogeneous
* Dough temperature: 24°C
* Rest for 40 minutes
* 1st coil fold
* Rest for 45 minutes
* 2nd coil fold
* Dough temperature: 23°C
* Rest until 7:00 PM – performed a "poke test" on the dough; the indentation remained
* Pre-shape
* Rest for 15 minutes
* Final shaping and transfer to a banneton
* Cold proof begins at 7:20 PM

* Total of 21 hours of cold fermentation

Baking
* Preheat for 40 minutes at 300°C with the top heating element (broiler/grill) on
* Dutch oven with 3 ice cubes
* 17 minutes with the lid on at 225°C, top heating element off
* 15 minutes with the lid off, top heating element off
* +5 minutes with the top heating element (broiler/grill) turned on

There’s a tendency I’ve noticed in the sourdough community and culture.

“The bread isn’t what I want” or “this just isn’t good enough”

It doesn’t seem to matter what the quality of the product actually is… very few are satisfied. Everyone seems to think something is wrong.

I get the feeling that many of most of us have no idea what we truly want. We don’t even know what rubric we are holding ourselves to and wouldn’t know if we absolutely nailed it. It’s always too gummy, not chewy, too open, too tight, ahhhh I have good bubbles but there are tunnels! My ear isn’t quite right.

Has anyone noticed this pattern? What is your perfect loaf and how would you know if you made it? Have you made it already? Consistently? Or is this just general dissatisfaction covering a desire for constant improvement and striving for perfection?

First successful one. Made it for my neighbor so I didn't get to try the taste but she was pretty happy. Please give me some support if possible for I am a bit self-conscious about the quality. Crumb-reads and suggestions for the future are welcome. The recipe used: 500g flour, 250g water, 150g starter, 25g olive oil, 10g salt. Bulk fermented at room temperature (it's springtime in NZ) for about 5.5 hours and 2 hours after shaping. Baked at 240°C for 20 min with steam and at 190°C for another 30.

First successful one. Made it for my neighbor so I didn't get to try the taste but she was pretty happy. Please give me some support if possible for I am a bit self-conscious about the quality. Crumb-reads and suggestions for the future are welcome. The recipe used: 500g flour, 250g water, 150g starter, 25g olive oil, 10g salt. Bulk fermented at room temperature (it's springtime in NZ) for about 5.5 hours and 2 hours after shaping. Baked at 240°C for 20 min with steam and at 190°C for another 30.

I baked this early this morning and it turned out wonderful. So soft!

I used this recipe… https://halicopteraway.com/sourdough-japanese-milk-bread/.

I followed the instructions almost exactly. I did the cold retard for 20 hours, shaped it into a single loaf instead of the 4 smaller rolls the recipe describes, put in a small Pullman pan and let it rise overnight, then baked per instructions.

A bakery near me makes these sourdough English muffins that I love. But they are not your typical English muffins with cornmeal dusted on it. I am new to the sourdough world, I have been trying to figure out how to make them. Would anyone have an idea how to make it? It’s thicker than a normal muffin.

Cold Fermented Pizza dough — 2 balls, 62% Hydration
Bread flour: 510 g
Water: 295 g, room temp
Active Starter: 115 g
Salt: 14 g
Sugar: 11 g
Olive oil: 19 g

- Mix together ingredients
- Knead/Stand mixer for 10-12 minutes
- Split into 2 dough balls and shape
- Let dough balls rest at room temp for about 2 hours
- Put in fridge for 2-5 Days

Day of:
- Pull from fridge 1-2 hours before use
- Preheat oven & pizza stone as high as oven will go (550 for me)
- Lay dough ball on floured surface
- Form crust with fingers and then press out all the air in the center
- Stretch to size (15” Pizza)
- Add whatever toppings
- Launch onto pizza stone and cook 5-7 minutes
- Pull pizza, slice, and enjoy!

I’m making these in Pakistan

Ingredients

250g APF
150g BF
200g starter made with bread flour
275g water
10g salt
Hydration 75 percent

Mixed in dough mixer until structure is developed

4 foil folds 30 mins apart. Dough finished mixing at 12:15pm.
Final coil fold was around 2:30.
Bulk ferment completed at 5:30pm

temp of dough was 25 Celsius. Room temp was 27ish Celsius.
Final shape and rested for another 40 mins. Final shape and fold was the one where we gently just fold it like a book? I’m not sure of the name.

Overnight cold proof for 14 hours. Baked in a deck oven at 255 Celsius both top and bottom for 33 minutes with steam. Open Bake

Start to finish was roughly six hours for fermenting.

115g starter | 335g warm water | 500g white bread flour | 10g salt

8:30am mix starter & water till foamy. Add flour & salt, mix with dough whisk and then hands for 2 mins, hittin that lobstah claw

9:30 First stretch and fold, twice around the bowl, 8 folds
10:00 4-6 stretch and folds
10:30 4-6 stretch and folds
11:00 4 stretch and folds
11-4ish bulk fermentation
4:00 preshape & rest
4:30 Shape
4:45pm stitch & put in fridge

-- The next morning --

9:45-10:15am Preheat dutch oven at 450F
10:15 Take dough out of the fridge, score. Bake for 35 mins at 450 covered, 15-20 mins uncovered at 425 till golden

Okay so to me this is great - I get pretty consistent, tasty, golden loaves. I feel like my shaping could use some work, but this is probably my lightest & fluffiest loaf yet. But I do see that larger hole/channel so I'm wondering what people think. I also didn't get a great ear...is that all in the flick of the wrist or what? I usually just do one score a bit off center at a pretty tight angle.

I feel like such a powerful woman in the kitchen when I make bread & i hope you all do too. Flour water salt and these hands??? So witchy.

1000 flour
100 starter
360 water
14 salt

She’s a big loaf.

Stiff starter
Kitchen aid Mixer mix - 10 min
Kneed 5 min on counter after
-Proof in oven (setting) for 1 hour 1st stretch and folds repeated three times the same way
-after 4 hour bulk, lay out completely flat on counter and then two folds inwards and roll into tight ball
- seal the ball and place into benaton for overnight bulk next morning heat oven for at least 45 min

Open oven bake (no Dutch first time for me), middle rack 425, on cast iron lodge pizza pan with parchment under.

Small cast iron skillet (very small) rack below towards back left (Launching the bread a few ice cubes into cast iron pan below )

1hr bake

Was happy with it, bread seemed ‘lighter’ than in a Dutch cook.

Hi there, made some nice buns today, thought I would share! 😊

Recipe:

-100g rye starter

-400g wheat flour

-50g wholewheat flour

-180g milk

-140g water

-11g salt

-10g honey

-10g olive oil

I mixed together the starter, my flours and liquids (milk and water) and let that sit for 30 minutes. Then, I added salt, honey and olive oil and mixed until well combined.

Two sets of s&fs, roughly 30-40 minutes apart.

Bulk fermentation was about 7-8 hours.

Shaped into little rolls and let them rest overnight in the fridge.

I preheated the oven this morning to 240°C and scored my buns. Baked for 15 minutes with steam, then another 10 minutes at 210°C until golden. Sprayed with water immediately after taking them out of the oven.

First loaf

Used my sons starter.
I fed the night before and left on the counter

Then 12 hours later combined 4 cups organic un bleached bread flour, 2 cups water a let sit 30 minutes

Added salt and stretched in started

First rise was 7 hours, more than doubled

Kneed then formed to a loaf.

Second rise was 2 hours

Used scissors to snip top

Baked in preheated cast iron Dutch oven at 450- covered with two ice cubes.

Baked another 20 uncovered at 425

Cut slice almost immediately out of oven.

more water than usual** i mean. is almost like, too soft, i wanna say gummy but idk. should i have baked it longer since it had more water?

300g bread flour

270g water

60g starter

6g salt

fermentolysed 1hr, added salt and 10g water, 6.5hr bulk, did 1 stretch and fold and 2 coil folds during bulk, shaped, fridge 16ish hours, baked 475f 20m covered 425f 20m uncovered.

New to Reddit and SD.

My five sort-of successful loaves don't taste like much. Will this improve as I get better at it?

Recipe: 100 g peak-ish starter that is a few months old; 300 g water, 450 g KA bread flour, 10 g salt.

30 min autolyse, 3-4 stretches & folds; 6-ish hours BF in a box thing at 78*F. The doughs have seemed to be fermented but never super fluffy bubbly-wobbly like online videos... they seem to have met the criteria for when BF is done, which of course is probably not the case yet (?!)

Pre- and final shape, into fridge for about 16 hrs.

Into a preheated 450*F gas oven for 25 min lid on; 25 min lid on/off

Four of the loaves were pale yellow, one triangular, the others a little flatter; Pictures are of the one that turned out okay. They seem to match the underfermented pictures online.

None of them have tasted remotely sour, so I don't think they were over-fermented. They just taste like a spongey flour product I worked very hard to create.

Give me a pep-talk that the taste will follow once I figure out fermentation. TY

What do I need to do better? My starter is young at 14 days old and has been doubling since day 5. I also feel like I should have maybe baked it longer.

Tastes pretty okay, but doesn’t look the best.. I used this recipe. https://grantbakes.com/good-sourdough-bread/